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Recursively Create a Nested Directory Structure & All Subfolders with a Single Command

May 27, 2014 - 10 Comments
Create a nested directory structure with mkdir command

Creating a series of nested directories within one another can be done instantly through the command line. This makes it very easy to immediately and recursively create a complex directory structure of folders within subfolders of subfolders, without having to navigate manually into each directory to create a new directory, then navigate again to that … Read More

Create ASCII Art Text Banners at the Command Line

May 23, 2014 - 9 Comments
Mac Terminal icon

Graphics and large stylized text blocks constructed entirely out of the ASCII keyboard characters is called ASCII art. You may have seen it with the goofy ASCII Star Wars thing, but once upon a time it was very popular to stylize messages and images on BBS’s, IRC, MUDs, message boards, and across the early days … Read More

Instantly Eject All Mounted Drives & Disks from the Command Line in Mac OS X

May 22, 2014 - 18 Comments
Eject all mounted volumes from the command line of Mac OS X

The next time you’re at the command line and need to eject every single mounted volume, hard drive, disk, disk image, and/or external drive attached to a Mac, you can instantly eject them all in one fell swoop with a handy osascript command string. This is great if you work frequently in the Terminal and … Read More

How to Use the Port Scanner in Mac OS X Network Utility

May 20, 2014 - 20 Comments
Scan ports from a Mac

Mac OS X comes with a bundled port scanner tool, just one of a variety of features tucked into the ever useful Network Utility app. That means you don’t need to bother with the command line or install more advanced tools like nmap to quickly scan for open ports on a given IP or domain, … Read More

How to Check Bluetooth Keyboard Battery Levels from Command Line on Mac OS X

May 18, 2014 - 11 Comments
Get Bluetooth battery life from the command line of Mac OS X

Ever needed to remotely check the battery level of a Bluetooth keyboard connected to a Mac? Or maybe you’re just a heavy Terminal user and wanted to see the current battery life of a wireless keyboard without having to leave the command line? You can do that easily through the Terminal of either a remote … Read More

See a “Flash Out-of-Date” Message in Safari on Mac? Here’s How to Fix That

May 17, 2014 - 20 Comments
Flash Out-of-Date in Safari for Mac OS X

Mac users who primarily browse the web with Safari will eventually notice the “Flash out-of-date” message appearing somewhere in the browser. This happens because the Mac will intentionally disable the Flash player plugin when it has become outdated, preventing any potential security breaches from occurring. As you probably guessed, this just means you need to … Read More

iTunes 11.2.1 Fixes the Missing /Users Directory Issue for Mac OS X

May 16, 2014 - 4 Comments
iTunes 11.2.1 update resolves missing Users folder

Apple has released iTunes 11.2.1, an update that, curiously, resolves the issue where some users encountered their /Users folder gone missing along with changed permissions to the same directory. Initially thought to be a bug with the OS X 10.9.3 update, apparently the problem was actually related to the accompanying update to iTunes.

Is Your /Users Folder Missing in OS X 10.9.3? Here’s How To Show Users Again

May 16, 2014 - 7 Comments
Users folder in Mac OS X

Update: iTunes 11.2.1 resolves this problem, making the Users folder visible again while also turning the directory permissions back to normal. All Mac users should install iTunes 11.2.1, even if they only updated to iTunes 11.2 and did not update to OS X 10.9.3 yet.

OS X 10.9.3 Software Update for Mac Now Available

May 15, 2014 - 27 Comments
OS X 10.9.3

Apple has released OS X 10.9.3 for Mac users running Mavericks. The software update includes a variety of bug fixes, security enhancements, and feature improvements to OS X, making it recommended for all Mac users running OS X Mavericks. Additionally, iTunes 11.2.1 has been made available as a separate update. Specifically, OS X 10.9.3 includes … Read More

Find Files with Date Specific Searches in Spotlight for Mac OS X

May 14, 2014 - 11 Comments
Spotlight

Being able to quickly access recent work files on a Mac is an obvious productivity booster, but what if you need to find files created or modified on a very specific date? There are a few ways to do this, but one of the fastest tricks is using date search operators in the Spotlight search … Read More

How to Disable App Nap Completely in Mac OS X

May 13, 2014 - 8 Comments
Disable App Nap completely in Mac OS X

App Nap is an energy feature introduced to the Mac in OS X Mavericks that causes inactive applications to go into a paused state, helping to reduce power usage. The feature can help to prolong battery life for the MacBook line, and it can also make an impact on overall energy usage from the computer. … Read More

How to Rename eMail Flags in Mail App for Mac OS X

May 13, 2014 - 11 Comments
How to rename email flags in Mail app for Mac OS X

The Mac Mail app defaults to naming the email flags as colors; Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Purple, and Gray. Those default flag names aren’t too descriptive, so a much better choice is to rename those mail flags to better accommodate your emailing habits, perhaps naming them as things like “To-Do”, “Family”, “Work”, “Important”, or … Read More

How to Password Protect Pages, Keynote, & Numbers Documents on iPad & iPhone

May 12, 2014 - 10 Comments
Password Protect iWork Documents

The iWork suite of productivity apps include Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, and each of them allow users to password protect individual documents. In practice, this means that a document created within iWork in iOS, Mac OS X, or iCloud, can be safely locked with built-in encryption, and the document can not be opened or viewed … Read More

Make Modern Designs with the iOS System Font, Helvetica Neue

May 10, 2014 - 8 Comments
iOS System Font is Helvetica Neue

Whether you love it or hate it, there’s no denying the new system font of iOS is slimmer, lighter, and more modern looking. If you’re a graphic artist, developer, or designer looking to make your own designs or mockups that fit into Apple’s new design language, using the proper font is a good place to … Read More

How to Remove a Windows Boot Camp Partition from a Mac

May 9, 2014 - 10 Comments
Boot Camp

Boot Camp allows you to dual-boot between a Windows partition and Mac OS X on a Mac. Dual booting multiple OS’s is incredibly useful and has plenty of purposes, but if you decide you no longer need to run Windows on a Mac you’ll probably want to remove the Windows Boot Camp partition so that … Read More

Use Fake Progress Bars to Pretend You’re Really Busy with the Stupid Corporate Avoidance Mac App

May 9, 2014 - 6 Comments
Fake progress bar app makes it look like you're busy

Want a fun way to kill some time on Friday? Get your best “Sorry boss, can’t do it, just too busy right now!” ready and try out Corporate Avoidance, an amusingly named Mac app that draws fake rendering progress bars across fake renditions of popular film, video, and audio production apps, giving the illusion that … Read More

How to Make a Copy of iPhone & iPad Backup Files

May 7, 2014 - 5 Comments
Copy iOS Backup Files

Duplicating the iPhone backup files may be desirable or necessary for a variety of reasons, whether it’s to make a manual backup of your iOS backups, or even if it’s just to move it onto another drive so that you can clear out some disk space. There are a few ways to go about doing … Read More

How to Change the Default Mail App Client in Mac OS X

May 6, 2014 - 55 Comments
How to change the Default Mail Client App in Mac OS X

The default email client in Mac OS X is the simply named “Mail” app, and it’s a pretty good mail application, but what if you’d rather use something else, like ThunderBird, Sparrow, pine, or a browser and web mail client like Gmail? That’s when you’ll want to change the default mail app to something else, … Read More

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